Literature Terms
Term

Definition

Example

Poetry Terms and Poetic Sound Devices
Alliteration

Allusion

Assonance

Consonance

Onomatopoeia
Rhyme

Approximate (slant)
Rhyme

End Rhyme

Repetition of the same or very similar consonant sounds usually at the beginnings of words that are close together in a poem.
Reference to a statement, a person, a place, or an event from literature, history, religion, mythology, politics, sports, science, or pop culture.
Repetition of similar vowel sounds that are followed by different consonant sounds, especially in words that are close together in a poem.
Repetition of similar vowel sounds that are followed by different sounds, especially in words that are close together in a poem.
Use of a word whose sound imitates or suggest its meaning.

Repetition of accented vowel sounds, and all sounds following them, in words that are close together in a poem.
When two words have sound in common but do not rhyme exactly. Occur at the ends of lines.

flung the shutter, when with many a flirt and flutter, In there stepped a stately Raven of saintly days of yore.
Henry uses an allusion to the wise men from the cast called
“The Magi” who presented the infant jesus with the first christmas gift.
Seeing the snowman standing all alone In dusk and cold is more than he can bear. The small boy weeps to hear the wind prepare A night of gashing and enormous moan. rubber baby buggy bumpers

And in the hush of waters was the sound Of pebbles, rolling round; Forever rolling
Choice/Voice Know/go

half rhymes, off rhymes, or slant rhymes. My last defense
Is the present tense.
It little hurts me now to know
I shall not go
Cathedral­hunting in Spain

Internal Rhyme

Occur in the middle of a line.

Rhyme Scheme

The pattern of end rhymes in a poem.

Meter

Generally regular pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in poetry

Rhythm

Musical quality in language produced by repetition.

Tone

Attitude a writes takes toward a subject, a character, or the audience. The recurrence of sounds, words, phrases, lines, or stanzas in a poem, speech, or other piece of writing.
A line or lines repeated at regular intervals in a poem or song, usually at the end of a stanza. Poetry written in unrhymed iambic pentameter.

Repetition

Refrain

Blank verse

Free Verse

Poetry that does not have a regular meter or rhyme scheme. Iambic Pentameter

Line of poetry that contains five iambs
Long story told in elevated language which relates the

Epic

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary The way a crow ­A
Shook down on me ­ B
The dust of snow ­ A
From a hemlock tree ­ B
Slowly, silently, now the moon
Walks the night in her silver shoon This way, and that, she peers, and sees
Silver fruit upon silver trees
1 2 3
A B C
Its okay with me!
Oh my gosh! I can’t believe you did that. She screamed like I had just slapped her.
Martin Luther King’s “I have A
Dream” speech.

It’s like the chorus of a song.

Something there that doesn’t love a wall
That sends the frozen­ground­swell under it,
And spills the double in the sun
The fog comes on little cat feet
It sits looking
Over harbor and city on silent haunches and then moves on
But soft! what light through yonder window breaks?
“By the shore of Gitche Gumee
By the shining big sea water at the doorway of his wigwam

Ballad

Sonnet

Lyric Poetry

Elegy

great deeds of a larger­than­life hero who embodies the values of a particular society.
Song that tells a story.

Fourteen­line lyric poem that is usually written in iambic pentameter and that has one of several rhyme schemes.
Poetry that does not tell a story but is aimed only at expressing a speaker’s emotions or thoughts.
A serious poem morning death or other loss.

Ode

A long serious lyric poem that is elevated in tone and style.

Stanza

A